I eventually leave the room and start heading to the other side of the
Gaylord, where former UN Ambassador John Bolton, Arkansas Senator Tom
Cotton and Montana Representative Ryan Zinke answer the question: “When
Should America Go to War?” And, folks, lemme tell you, it is all the
dang time.

In the old days, the draft was an unknown event that took place in
hotel banquet rooms, sometimes during the season. Old-timers like former
Cowboys executive Gil Brandt tell stories about teams that used to “pick up a pay phone, call a school, and say, ‘Hey, we need a tackle; you got anybody good?’”

Screw that now: The new reality-show format subjects the draft
entrants to a hilarious nine-week stretch of goofball obstacle courses
and campy personality tests that collectively play out on TV like a
cross between Battle of the Network Stars and the Miss America pageant, with a faint but troubling whiff of 1830s slave auction mixed in.